AMC Tornado: "Look at Me, I'm Chuckie P"

[R Sinclair]

This column seems like a personal bitchfest more than a critique. The tornado has been incredibly entertaining. After a year of the Brown and Esensten snooze-a-palooza where NOTHING remotely exciting happened -- stories moving at a snail's pace... which was on the heels of McTavish's depressing All About Babe drenched 3 1/2 year run... I'm actually satisfied when I finish watching an episode. There is so much going on, there are bits and pieces of different stories being touched upon throughout the episode and there are humorous as well as dramatic beats.

This is not a documentary. There will be cheesy, melodramatic plot points to get a story in motion. I, for one, don't give a flying frog's fat ass about how Bianca got to Pine Valley from Paris. She's here, the baby's here and now I want to see where this story goes. Same with the whole Jesse backstory. This should've been touched upon at the beginning of the year... but B&E didn't even dare. It was just this boring "Jesse's back, Angie's back, and Frankie's back. Everyone's fine, perfect, smiling and happy all the time." Now, it's like, wait a minute. There was a twenty year gap, here. Let's look into it.

The whole point of the tornado was to thrust these and other stories into the forefront. As far as I can tell, it's worked. It's not like this big, dramatic event happened and only one story came out of it with the rest of the characters being window dressing. It was a life changing event for several characters and also allowed Pratt to wrap up a lot of the previous regime(s) and work on what stories he'd like to tell.

In my opinion, getting the whole ABC Crown Jewel AMC back is, well, not going to happen. All I want for this show, as defeatist as it might sound to some, is to see entertaining stories, an array of interesting characters and good, solid acting and directing.

[SFK]

Disagreeing with her assessment is one thing, but how in the world is this "a new low"?

[marceline]

I don't have much to say about her dislike of Pratt. But I hated this in response to one commenters use of the term "umbrella story":

Dismissive much?

[detroitpiston]

Saying Amen just isn't enough, this post is amazing!

[SFK]

I agree with you, I think the show is getting exciting and enjoyable again, I look forward to seeing how things unravel. But I wouldn't dismiss Marlena's column as a bitchfest, she's just speaking to her personal tastes which I happen to agree with. Specifically, I think she's commenting on the writers' lack of finesse in their storytelling. The tornado was reverse deus ex machina, instead of randomly and conveniently solving a problem, it just as randomly and conveniently introduced about five of them. Now, I happen to like the stories that were introduced, but one can't expect every fan to just sit back and happily accept this "by any means necessary" style of ratings boosting just b/c "it's good for the show." Entertain me, but don't insult my intelligence. This Reese/Bianca/baby/Zach/Kendall thing will be interesting to watch, but let's call a spade a spade... it is totally contrived. Fun to watch? YES hopefully! But again, contrived. Now, there is nothing contrived about the Angie/Jesse/Rebecca thing, I've been waiting for this story since Jesse came back. Angie and Rebecca are playing so nice though, I hope they don't let Jesse off the hook... I'm afraid this s/l won't go far unless these three start getting bitter and pissed REAL fast.

[SFK]

Indeed. That *ouched* a little.

But she has a point. Perhaps it would've been easier to digest coming from a fellow fan.

We message board fans DO often look silly, proffering opinions and making bold statements about things we really don't know about. Unless we're also industry, the only thing we're experts at is being fans.

[Adam]

Totally.... another long list of reasons the genre is suffering today. The internet fan.....

[Faulkner]

I agree with this post...I like the stories (sans the silly Bianca/Zach thing, but I am excited to see Reese). Still, I wish the execution was a little more meticulous.

But again, that may be asking too much in this effed-up soap climate.

[marceline]

Primetime and cable seem to be able to withstand internet fans. Some even capitalize on them. Why is daytime unable to handle it? The internet fan is a fact of the modern world. So it sounds like it's the march of time that's killed soaps.

[Sylph]

Well, because much of her past columns were either completely off-base, very sarcastic and dismissive or totally bland. But what killed this one the most was the title - Chuckie?! For a woman who claims to be journalistic aristocracy, such a horrible title really is a new low and speaks volumes about her standards and principles.

Quite possibly.

[Cat]

Co-sign!

TPTB already disdain us, generally laugh at us and ignore us. Do we really need to turn on each other in the same manner? "It's your fault Daytime is going down the drain." No, it's not. I love Daytime but should be allowed to express my opinions and use any terminology I want in doing so.

Just because I come on this board to talk about Y&R or AMC or whatever doesn't mean I am the source of Daytime's ills -- which are, in no particular order:

-spoilers, spoilers and more spoilers,

-rabid, hysteria-prone fanbases,

-micromanaged writers under tremendous pressure,

-PTB that don't know their ass from their elbow, and

-sh!tty time slots.

And P.S.: I don't agree with Marlena's essay -- as JP said, it's too early to judge Pratt -- but it's her blog, her POV.

[SFK]

You know that old saying, empty barrels make the most noise? Maybe that's why we soap fans get a bad wrap, because it's the looney toons among us who write the most letters and convince TIIC to showcase annoying actors and supercouples who the rest of us don't give a $#!% about.

[cct]

The whole thing about Bianca and how did she get there by plane with a tornado coming...how did she even know Kendall was at the beach house, since it was spontaneous?....well, I CAN overlook stuff like that, but not when the show is riddled with these inconsistencies.

A lot of AMC is contrived right now. I'm giving Pratt the benefit of the doubt. As someone else commented, it's certainly not the worst I've seen AMC in my 18 years of watching.

[David_Vickers]

The tornado storyline was and is very entertaining and good. Marlena DeLaCroix just hates AMC now and this was just a hate fest with what seems like a personal vendeta about it, lol.

[dragonflies]

Yep and it certainly is, that's one thing that has sadly been a consistency with AMC from McTavish, to B&E and now with Pratt. It's like these writer's don't remember stuff they wrote a few days ago.

The tornado wasn't needed to reset the canvas, heck a reset wasn't needed, just write the characters IN CHARACTER, write a GOOD CHARACTER DRIVEN storyline, instead of stuff that is full of shock value and is contrived and continues to drive away the long term fans.

IMO AMC is heading the way of Days, ie. bleeding viewers and not seeming to recover from it